The things that become so deeply ingrained in our lives make us vulnerable to taking their effects for granted; so much that we are crippled of imagining a world without them. The idea as such becomes so abstract that it is not a stretch for many to call this imagination a futile exercise. The process of communication is one among them and in the last twenty years, cyberspace has transformed this human process like no other development. We have borne witness to advents that came and went (Orkut, My Opera and even Google+), but also to others that are in for the long run – Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and the likes.
The legal pad page on which Twitter’s idea was laid out as stat.us.
Credit – Jack Dorsey (Flickr)
Twitter is another tech behemoth and on which I specifically wish to focus here. It was founded on March 21, 2006 by Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, who is the current CEO as well. The idea behind Twitter arose as a concept of a person using it to communicate with a small group of people. Initially codenamed twttr, the network’s first message was sent by Dorsey himself when he tweeted “just setting up my twttr” (MacArthur 2019). From then on it was not a question of if, but how soon would Twitter permeate our communication spaces.
Before coming to stories from the last twenty years, I want to point out an incident from the twentieth century, two decades before Twitter happened. The Chernobyl explosion in 1986 is mostly known for its nuclear uniqueness but the truth behind the unfolding of disastrous chain of events lie beyond mere industrial incompetence. The real failure was the rigid communication hierarchy that existed in every realm of the Soviet state back then, allowing no room for truthful feedback to superiors or even honest notification for the general population. The fear of incurring an image crisis led to lies being told to cover previous lies. The truth, despite being known to individuals, could not vent itself through a channel. If only there was a medium for them to spread the true word, perhaps even anonymously, that could cross international borders with as much ease as the radioactive poisoning itself, numerous lives could have been saved. Maybe a superpower nation would not have been globally shamed. If only the people had a Twitter back then. Such is the power of the word or in this instance, the absence of it.
Chirps of Inconsequential Information
Dorsey has explained the rationale behind the name Twitter as being “exactly what the product was”. The literal definition being “a short burst of inconsequential information” or “chirps from birds” (Sarno 2009). We in the year 2020 have the retrospective vantage to ridicule the idea of Twitter being an inconsequential artefact but no one could have foreseen this meteoric rise in 2006. There were, of course, markers along the way that showcased the utility of the service for the public. In 2006, a minor earthquake in California had friends of Biz Stone tweeting to him about it (Stone 2006). Today geotagged tweets can be the difference between life and death in situations requiring swift rescue operations.
Hashtagging Together
In 2007, a user named Chris Messina put forward (through a tweet, of course) a proposal for using the ‘#’ symbol for grouping tweets of the same content theme. The hashtag has since become an omnipresent feature in social media itself. Alluding to an analogue, it is the spark that has ignited all wildfires on Twitter. Concurrently, deliberate attempts at going “viral” have not guaranteed success either. I believe this to be a positive indicator of the collective cyber psyche, one that shines through two events I have written about below.
The #MeToo movement gathered momentum through social media spaces like Twitter and capabilities of the hashtag.
Credit – Fair Observer
The #MeToo movement became a symbol of unification against injustice towards marginalised people by gaining traction on the internet. Although the phrase usage dates back to 2006 on Myspace, its visibility soared only in 2017 when actor Alyssa Milano tweeted accusations against Harvey Weinstein (Guerra 2017). Her actions encouraged others to come out and share their plights through the platform. The outcomes of this extended to the reformation of the anti-sexual harassment policy in the U.S. Congress. The medium here was key in sending a message that a change had to occur and the collective voices had found a new space that was as tough to ignore as it was easily visible. It reinforced the inevitability of Twitter’s existence in our daily cultures.
Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun is seen with Thai immigration authorities at a hotel inside Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand January 7, 2019.
Credit – Thailand Immigration Police via REUTERS
Apart from a collective message being disseminated for the larger good, Twitter has also come to the rescue of individuals. A notable incident took place on 5 January last year when an eighteen year-old Saudi Arabian girl, Rahaf Mohammed was detained in Bangkok, while on her way to claim asylum in Australia. As she was undergoing this situation, she live tweeted the reasons behind her escapade, namely physical and psychological abuse from her family, opposition to her desire for education and decision to renounce Islam (that is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia). Soon the #SaveRahaf tag began trending by tens of thousands and her number of followers had reached 45,000 in a single day (Tanakasempipat 2019). The spontaneity in action from her side as well as the netizens was a huge factor in her getting an asylum in Canada and possibly even saved her life.
“We might have just handed a 4-year-old a loaded weapon.”
He might have said it to really drive home his point rather than kindle fear amongst people but Chris Wetherell was surely not getting carried away by his thoughts. He was referring to the “Retweet” feature on Twitter in 2019, ten years after developing the feature himself (Kantrowitz 2019). While the above stories are only a handful among many others that reveal the positive power of Twitter, a less glitzy side of it exists too. The retweet feature was introduced to ease the earlier manual way of sharing someone else’s tweet, akin to the “Forward” or “Share” feature on WhatsApp and Facebook respectively. Easing the process has arguably led to people furthering information indiscriminately and having no obligation to comprehend the tweet’s content. In theory, it increases the risk of fake news spreading or actual news being lost in the clutter of viral innocuousness. This importance gets magnified when looked from Evan Williams’ viewpoint in 2013 that Twitter is “more of an information network than it is a social network” (Lapowsky 2013). One can identify a desire for Twitter’s team to have allegiance towards the news media side of roles, a neo-news agency if one can call it that. Venturing towards the fourth state in this way also necessitates adhering to the ethics of journalism. But in an age when ratings play god for news outlets, this is clearly easier said than done.
The Tweet Culture
But what has been the effect of Twitter in general on the way we communicate? The stand out feature of character limit originated from the SMS capabilities and have largely withstood the pressure of limitless content existing on other online platforms. I believe this has helped me inculcate the idea that brevity is not a limiter of expression; on the contrary it often leads to other creativities. Keeping track of what eminent people do and say has been easier than ever before. Twitter’s greatest benefit I believe, is that it can be utilised in the ways we want. For bloggers, it offers greater audience than conventional blog portals. Live tweeting about events is another dedicated usage. It’s suitability as the primary news source for an individual is increasing day by day. Casual entertainment and personal messaging provide utilities that are commonplace.
Where to from here?
Credit: Quora
As much as this is a question to be asked of the user base, it is also pertinent for the developers. A deliberate attempt to not compromise on users’ specific interests, especially how they prefer to use the platform, would likely ensure Twitter’s longevity. At the same time, there needs to be an open acknowledgement of ethics when coming up with newer features. Proposals like the retweet with comment feature will not fix the greater shortcomings with respect to user responsibility and to withdraw a popular feature is almost impossible in the tech industry, however morally contentious it may be. The way to eliminating such cons is of a procedural nature and not a step to be enacted instantaneously. While the jury’s out on that front, the fact that Twitter is here to stay in our cyber, social and information circles is fairly certain.
Works Cited
- Guerra, Cristela. “Where Did ‘Me Too’ Come from? Activist Tarana Burke, Long before Hashtags – The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 17 Oct. 2017, www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2017/10/17/alyssa-milano-credits-activist-tarana-burke-with- founding-metoo-movement-years-ago/o2Jv29v6ljObkKPTPB9KGP/story.html.
- Kantrowitz, Alex. “Man Who Built The Retweet: ‘We Handed A Loaded Weapon To 4-Year- Olds.’” BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed News, 31 July 2019, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ alexkantrowitz/how-the-retweet-ruined-the-internet.
- Lapowsky, Issie. “Ev Williams on Twitter’s Early Years.” com, Inc., 4 Oct. 2013, www.inc.com/issie-lapowsky/ev-williams-twitter-early-years.html? cid=em01011week40day04b.
- MacArthur, Amanda. “The History of Twitter You Didn’t Know.” Lifewire, Lifewire, 12 Nov. 2019, www.lifewire.com/history-of-twitter-3288854.
- Sarno, David. “Twitter Creator Jack Dorsey Illuminates the Site’s Founding Document. Part I.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2009, latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/ 2009/02/twitter-creator.html.
- Stone, Biz. “Have Your Quake And Twitter It Too.” Twitter, Twitter, 3 Aug. 2006, blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2006/have-your-quake-and-twitter-it-too.html.
- Tanakasempipat, Patpicha. “#SaveRahaf: Activists’ Lightning Campaign Made Saudi Teen’s Flight a Global Cause.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 8 Jan. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us- thailand-saudi-campaign/saverahaf-activists-lightning-campaign-made-saudi-teens-flight-a- global-cause-idUSKCN1P21CU.
